Aftermath of New SHIELD
by made.for.life
Summary: When the secondary SHIELD broke into Phil's base they left some damage. They also left someone damaged and only Mack can pick up the pieces. I mean, he did kind of throw Fitz into the floor.


Mack sat very still. He could almost feel the emotion radiating off the woman working on him. Simmons was confused and worried and scared and concerned. When she finished she backed off and nodded.

"Thank you Gemma." He looked at her. "And for what it's worth, I am sorry we had to scare you like this."

Her eyes went hard. "I'm not the one you'll have to beg forgiveness from." Simmons inclined her head out the door.

"I know." Mack said solemnly.

Fitz had folded himself up. He had his knees to his chest and his head pressed to the wall in fear. Mack had grown to recognize the pre-panic attack status as he watched the scientists from the windowed room.

"I know." The man said again unnecessarily as he pulled his shirt on.

The dark skinned man walked over slowly. Fitz was like a scared animal sometimes. He wasn't quite sure how he was going to take this all. Plus the fact that Mack had kind of smashed him into the floor. Not that it wasn't necessary but the sentiment was there. Fitz glanced up as soon as the other agent took a knee next to him. In a flash the curly haired scientist had scrambled away.

"Fitz." Mack called.

Fitz was shaking his head and in seconds he had backed himself into a corner. Mack could watch the panic rise in his eyes as his back hit the walls. Tears were welling up in the baby blues.

"Leo." The larger man called. "Come on man, talk to me."

That broke the flood gates.

"I-I want you to still be a g-good guy." Fitz started crying. "I thought we had a team together and – and – and that it was safe. I w-was, was getting better. You were, you were helping me." He gasped. "Then stuff happened and I thought wrong but I just, my brain, and all messed up, and I couldn't, can't fix it. And it hurt and Gemma and Gemma but you. You were there so I thought it was okay." Fitz rubbed his face, not even able to look at the man in front of him. "Then you and your head. Your-your mind and b-body. I kind. I didn't mean to but I loved. I love you and I can't or I shouldn't and I don't know. I can trust you but I-I-I-I-"

"Turbo!" Mack snapped, trying to calm him down.

Suddenly Mack froze as he digested what he was hearing, the three most dangerous words in the human language.

"Now you're going to kill us or take us with you or leave me. I can't, can't, can't. You can't please don't. Please don't leave me. My head is all messed up already and I can't deal with any-y-y-one else leaving me."

Mack stumbled forward. He reached out. There was blood dribbling over Fitz's hands. Mack flinched, feeling awful for not checking him after he had thrown the other man to the ground.

"Leo, come on your bleeding, please." The huge man reached for him.

The scientist squeezed in on himself tightly. Mack could see the boy cowering by his side during the HYDRA attack. He had adored the kid but Fitz was different. He did feel a different kind of emotion. Right now all he felt was pain. His hand finally closed around Fitz's arm.

"Come on." He tugged gently. "C'mere."

Dark eyes flicked to glare around the room, sending the onlookers scattering. Even Gemma fled under the mechanic's harsh scowl. Mack slowly maneuvered Fitz toward him. The scientist wouldn't look up at him but did fold into his lap. The older man was large enough to engulf him entirely. Fitz wrapped in himself and Mack like a second skin around him, sitting on the floor, filling the room with soft cries. Eventually it quieted and Mack realized that the other had fallen asleep.

The mechanic rose carefully, cradling Fitz to his chest. "Leo." He whispered softly.

The curly head rolled to rest against his chest. Mack carried him over to where Simmons was pacing uneasily in the glass workroom.

"Gemma, can you bandage his head? Must'a banged it on the way down." The dark skinned male said with obviously guilt.

"Yeah." She wrapped it carefully and checked him over. "He'll be okay. Please try to convince him to rest his right hand." The woman slipped a splint onto it. "And Mack?"

The dark eyes finally left Fitz's sleeping form and met hers.

"Thank you for saving him." Simmons said honestly. "Multiple times actually. He won't blame you for his injuries."

"Not the physical ones at least." Mack muttered under his breath.

The scientist frowned. "Pardon me?"

"Nothing." He intoned, standing up with Fitz still in his arms.

Mack stormed away from everyone. He got into the private chamber area, the long hallway full of doors and rooms. He stopped suddenly. Where the hell was he even going anyways? Fitz's room? His room? Finally he just walked on. Nobody had better come looking for him. He'd had enough of everyone for today. As had the poor scientist. The door slid open, recognizing him.

Mack sighed heavily. "God Turbo, I am so sorry."

Fitz woke up kind of distorted. He had absolutely no idea where he was. There was a cool to the touch wall inches from his nose. A hot wall pressed against his back but he didn't feel all that constrained. The curly haired male shifted. Muscles clenched around his waist. Muscles? Panic rose through him as he realized there was an arm over his hips. The hand on his stomach twitched and the thumb rubbed softly.

"Heep!" Fitz squeaked.

He threw his hands over his mouth. Whoever was behind him shifted. The guy felt absolutely massive, in stature and structure of course, his mind corrected immediately.

"Turbo?" A groggy voice asked. "You okay?"

The scientist just tensed and tensed more, beginning to shake. Yesterday's events crashed into him like an incoming tide.

"Hey." Mack frowned in confusion then grabbed the smaller male at a realization. "Hey! Turbo!" He flipped the scientist over and met the watery blue eyes. "Leo."

Fitz stared. He had his hands pressed to his face. His teeth dug hard into his lip. His own words astonished him.

"Leo." The dark skinned man sighed. He lay back down, putting his face just inches from Fitz's. "It's okay I swear. I'm not going to leave you, ever. I made up my mind. Where ever you're going I'll be there until the day I die. As long as you want me."

The blue eyes were absolutely blown out. Huge, to their greatest capacity. Mack was starting to wonder if he had broken the innocent little Turbo powered male when Fitz swallowed. With some difficulty, he removed his hands from his face. The scientist had become quite entwined with the blankets when Mack flipped him.

"You p-p-promise?" Fitz tried to keep his voice steady and reigned in.

The larger man tugged at his sheets and the comforter to free Fitz from its grip. The scientist flushed and nodded at him with thanks. Fitz froze. A large hand came up to cup his face. Mack's hand was large enough it covered half of his head. Eyes wide, his blue eyes searched the mechanic's face.

"I promise." Mack said sincerely. "I promise. I love you too Leo."

Tentatively, Fitz reached out a hand toward him then paused. He went to set his hand back down, losing his courage. The hand on his face slide down his arm abruptly. Mack picked the hand back up and brought it to his lips. Fitz gasped and shivered at the sensation.

There was a pounding on the door. Mack actually growled and pulled Fitz possessively to him. The blue eyes scientist raised his brows in surprise.

"Mack? Are you in there?" Bobbi called through the door. "Your door is locked."

"I'm here." Mack said with annoyance.

A note of panic was in Bobbi's voice. "Listen Mack, we need to move. Fitz is missing. He's not in his room and nowhere on base."

The two men locked eyes. Fitz pressed his face into the other's shoulder to muffle his soft chuckles.

"Bobbi." Mack called out with a sigh.

"Yeah?"

"Turbo's right here."

There was a pause. "So Fitz is. With you." There was another long silence. "Okay. The Directors want to see both of you this morning then….." Her sentence just kind of trailed off and footsteps let them know that she had retreated.

The scientist was shaking with laughter still. Mack grumbled unintelligibly and tightened his arms to pull Fitz flush against him. Involuntarily the smaller man put an arm over his waist. He stopped laughing when he realized exactly how he was positioned and checked the dark brown eyes for disapproval. They were closed though, resting contentedly. Shyly, Fitz settled into the vastly larger man's arms.

Mack smelled like diesel fuel and perspiration. Mack felt like semi-aqueous fluid over a carbon steel frame. Mack sounded like a revving high efficiency engine. Somehow it all just kind of fit him and suited Fitz just fine.

"What's going on in here?" Mack asked bumping Fitz's curly head with his chin.

Without looking up Fitz's voice poured out. "You're an amazing person. Like really, really amazing and I love and all that, well not all that, I love you really, really love you and I have for a while but I also adore Phil, I mean Coulson, he just, I trust him, but I don't want to leave you but I can't abandon Coulson, without him I would have-"

"Leo." The dark skinned male squeezed him.

The dying boy back during the fall of SHIELD flashed before his eyes but now he had curly dirty blonde hair and lonely blue eyes. Fitz was his. Leo IS his.

Mack pressed his lips lightly to Fitz's head. "I'll go anywhere you go. Anywhere. If you go back to Coulson I'll follow. I don't care." He hesitated for a second. "I would, if you can, like you to try to work with the board. I like how they run SHIELD. They don't keep secrets."

The scientist pressed his face tighter. "I just, I can't. My mind and my voice. Coulson wasn't bad because he knew me but strangers?"

"I'll be right there." Mack rocked him gently.

Fitz's fingers dug into the mechanic's light t-shirt. "Okay."

Mack nuzzled the top of his head. "Come on baby."

"Baby?"

The mechanic chuckled. "No good?"

He hauled himself up right and stretched his arms upward. Mack's shirt rode up. Fitz mouthed his words then pause. He got distracted for a moment.

Fitz shook his head to clear it. "It makes me feel infantile."

The smaller male jumped. Mack knelt on the edge of the bed, inched from Fitz's face.

"My lion?" He hummed softly.

The scientist swallowed hard. "Are you a panther then?"

"Is that a black joke?" Mack laughed, standing up.

Fitz flushed bright red. "N-n-no! I d-didn't mean it like that."

"Relax." The larger male laced his fingers through Fitz's. "Come on." He tugged him out of bed.

"I just…." The scientist trailed off.

Mack stripped his shirt off. The muscles on his back tensed and stretched enticingly. Fitz choked on his own spit trying to swallow. The mechanic turned with a concerned look. He face spun to a grin though seeing the blush covering the man's entire face.

"Like what you see Turbo?" He asked huskily, pulling on a new shirt. He decided against new pants. These ones would have to work.

"Uh. Well. I mean. Yes?"

"Come on." Mack tugged, chuckling.

The left the room and Fitz pulled back on his hand. "Mack, can we…?" He tugged at his dusty and bloodied shirt.

"Yeah."

They made their way into Fitz's tight cubicle. The scientist shrank under Mack's harsh gaze. He tried his best to cover them, the scars. He didn't use to have any but now, they marred his back and left arm. Fitz's froze. Fingers ghosted over the lines.

"It's okay." Mack assured gently. In his head he growled and snarled and felt murder but for Fitz he could be calm.

The scientist's ears were flaming red but he did relax. He slid on a new shirt and, after forcing Mack to turn around, a new pair of pants.

"Ready?" Mack asked wrapping his arms around Fitz's waist.

It didn't seem weird at all. Normally he wouldn't even touch his current partner but every fiber in his body was screaming get him, grab him, hold on to him, tightly. Fitz seemed okay with it and actually was reciprocating. It was a good sign to him. Unbeknownst to him Fitz wanted to feel it all. He had realized that long before he had even gotten part of the way over his injury. People treated him like glass that they couldn't even pick up for fear of shattering it.

It felt natural for them to walk down the hall with one of Mack's arms slung over his waist. It was a perfectly normal tick to lean into the contact. Instinct dictated that he grasp the muscular arm when they were entering the central room with the holodesk cleared off. Everyone was staring. Fitz's eye when wide with panic as Mack herded him in. Finally his eyes met Simmons's. She smiled encouragingly and he could loosen his grasp up a bit.

"Good morning." The strange man with the white beard greeted. "Mack." There was a spark of sorts in the man's eye. "Mister Fitz."

"M-m-morning." Fitz stuttered, flinching at his own voice.

Mack's thumb stroked his hip soothingly. They were both glad that the table came up to midsection height, no one could see the action unless they were standing on the same side that they were. Or if they were Simmons who just grinned internally. In the center of the table there was a box. Fitz recognized it right away but didn't utter a sound. Everyone looked at him anyways.

"Mister Fitz," His old professor started, "We have retrieved this particular item from a SHIELD facility. We are all wondering whether or not you know anything about it or if you could assist us in opening it?"

Fitz shook his head harshly. "Sh-sh-she won't open for you." He said boldly then his expression broken and his breath huffed in and out nervously.

Everyone looked confused. The harsh looking man in the corner glared at him. Fitz shivered. Another attack was building up in the pit of his stomach. He started shaking under the man's glare. Hands slammed into his shoulders and spun him harshly. Fitz looked up into Mack's dark eyes.

"Leo. It's okay." He soothed. "It's fine. I've got you okay? They're just confused. Nobody's mad. Nothing's going to happen."

He rubbed his thumbs over the pointed shoulders. Fitz tipped his head down and put it on the edge of Mack's shoulder. The larger man cupped the back of his neck, glaring daggers at the directors. Mack was the single most terrifying person when he was mad and now he was pissed. Even the board members looked cowed. Bobbi swallowed. Simmons grinned.

Fitz pushed back up. "I'm good." He cleared his throat. "But ah.."

Mack stepped even closer to him and put his arm back over his waist. The smaller male nodded gratefully.

He spoke with a kind of carefully formulated confidence. "She won't open for any of you." He looked down at the box and changed his tone. "Toybox, come." He put his hand on the table.

The box shuddered and trembled. The metal paneling shifted and strained, stretching, elongating. It shaped itself and took the form of a small garden snake, albeit with glowing blue eyes and segmented metal sheets for her body. It slithered, flicking out its silver tongue. The snake crawled into Fitz's hand and he lifted it up.

"She's beautiful." He grinned looking her over. "I made this for Fury. Specifically for Fury. She's a marvel in and of herself for the complex locking feature. She's DNA, retinal scan, heart beat check, and electrical stimulus password operands all at the same time. She can be encoded to one person and only one person at a time. Toybox will only reveal all her information storage to Coulson but as her coder I can open her. Fury can too but for us she's just a semi-sentient laptop. After a certain number of days without contact from her operant lock she will actually destroy herself in such a way that every bit of data stored in her will be gone."

"Wow." Mack leaned in with one finger out toward the mechanical snake.

It continued weaving around Fitz's fingers until it encountered Mack's hand. At the change she paused for a second and then added the route to her weaving pattern, tying the two men together with a snakey bond.

"Thought it was just you, Coulson, and Fury?" Mack asked.

Fitz flushed horribly and muttered something under his breathe along the lines of, "You have my DNA all over you."

The board of directors did not look happy. "So what you're saying is that, one: we can't have the information in that thing, two: you can't do anything to get the information, and three: she has to go back to Coulson before we lose everything?"

"That is correct." Fitz replied.

He set the snake back on the table. She gave him what could have been considered a doleful look had she not been a weird robo-snake. Finally the mechanical snake squished itself back together and reformed the cube.

The board people turned inward toward each other. They hissed and barked together and Fitz just ignored them as Mack leaned tight in over his shoulder.

"You said it was semi-sentient?" He whispered.

The scientist nodded.

Mack put his arms around them and they hunched over the machine. "How'd you manage that?"

The smaller man picked up the box. "That was nothing," He said softly. "It's really just a rather adaptive machine. It's not like it has feelings other than pain. The difficult part for me was the independent assortment of the segmentation."

"Hydraulics or air compression?"

"Magnetics actually. Less frictional resistance."

The dark skinned man also set his fingers on the box. "More electrical damage probability."

"Nope." Fitz grinned. "I fixed that with-"

"Eh-hem." Someone coughed.

Fitz flushed seeing everyone staring.

Mack just gave them a hard look. "You're excused."

One of the women frowned. "Apologies for the interruption but we thought you might be interested in the verdict."

The scientist nodded warily.

"We have determined that the Toybox will be returned to Coulson just on the charge that we need that information to be kept…" She paused, "Accessible? Viable? Viable then."

"Very good. Very good." Fitz let out a relieved breath.

"Mister Mackenzie, we ask that you return it on behalf of SHIELD." The man with the beard waved a hand.

The larger man stood up to his full height. "With all due respect it might be more successful to send someone that Coulson actually trusts with me. I request Fitz and I return it."

The man sputtered. "That's illogical. Mack, you know that would be as good as letting him go!"

"Then send someone else." Mack declared harshly.

"We can't even find him and you want us to send two agents on a goose chase?" The lady demanded.

"Um." Fitz raised one hand. "I can find him."

He shuffled partially behind Mack's shoulders. The dark skinned man just raise a critical eyebrow, daring them to defy him. The smaller man stifled a stunning grin. He wasn't lying though. The people glared at each other furiously.

Mack threw the cube on the table and turned, grabbing Fitz's shoulders. "We'll be around when you come to the right choice."

They got out into the hallway. Simmons excused herself quickly. The three of them calmly passed the glass wall, down into the brick hallway.

"That was absolutely brilliant. There's no way they can deny you two!" Simmons cheered. "That's such an amazing piece of equipment too Fitz!"

"So you're not uh, mad?" The scientist asked flickering his eyes to Mack.

"Why would I? Oh! No Fitz! Of course not. We've all been watching you look after Mack like an intrigued lion for a while now. I'm just happy for you." Simmons's eyes hardened suddenly as she turned to Mack. "But if anything happens to him I will remind you that I am the top bio-scientist in the class. I know exactly what to give you that will draw your death out over months, slowing tearing apart your insides and all you can do is watch."

She gave one last grin to Fitz before stalking off. Mack swallowed hard pulled Fitz to him, burying his face it the scientist's hair.

"She is very scary sometimes."

Somehow, well not somehow, Mack knew very well how exactly Fitz had dragged him down here, they had ended up in the storage room dragging through crates of who the hell knows what. It seemed endless. Rows upon rows odd metal crates. The mechanic's muscles groaned in protest when he lifted down another one to check the number. He set it down. Wrong number. Mack groaned. He looked back up at the shelf and wondered if he could just leave it on floor. It was only about a foot taller tall but felt like it was full of compressed lead. He checked the label.

"What the hell!" Mack threw his arms up. It was full of lead. "Why do we have a goddamn box of lead?"

"Dunno." Fitz called back somewhere in the back. "Hang on, I've got it!"

"Great." Mack sighed.

The scientist appeared at the end of the aisle with a metal brief case. "This should allow us to tr…." He gave Mack a confused look. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Mack assured. "It's just heavy." He rolled his shoulders. "Little taxing."

The larger man tipped his head back with a sigh. He rolled his shoulders.

Fitz examined the box and the opportunity. It was kind of like the variables just al lined up. He was actually wondering how he could go about stealing a kiss. He wasn't exactly against climbing the man but this worked.

"Any way," The scientist set the box down, "These little guys will help us track Coulson." He stepped up on the box quietly.

"Mmhmm. How?" Mack shifted and startled at the body he bumped. "Leo?"

The other man was suddenly taller than him. That didn't exactly register as the blue eyes turned from smart and fast to intensely curious and heated. Fitz leaned forward and pressed his lips to Mack's. Almost immediately he pulled back and touched a finger to his face.

"That's a weird feeling." He whispered.

Mack was just watching him with amusement. "First kiss Lion?"

Fitz flushed slightly. "Yeah. I might need a s-s-s-secondary sample though. Just to get a thorough data spread."

Mack ran his hands around the smaller man's waist. "I think two is a pretty small sample."

He cupped Fitz's head and kissed him again. Part of the scientist's mind suggested that this might need to be a comparison over time. He felt like Mack would agree.


End file.
